Place

South America

Featured Items

Detail of an engraved title page shows medallion portraits at the border, a coat of arms, and text in Spanish.

Historia general de las conquistas del nuevo reyno de Granada

Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita
1688
Detail of an engraved map shows mountainous topography and text in Italian.

Descrittione di tutto il Peru

Paulo di Forlani
circa 1564-1572
Detail of a printed book shows a full-page colored illustration of a plant with insects on it. On the opposite page, text in Latin is visible.

Dissertatio de generatione et metamorphosibus insectorum Surinamensium

Maria Sibylla Merian
1719
Detail of a printed map shows text in Spanish reading "La Puna" and other labels over landmarks.

Carta de la Provincia de Quito y sus Adjacentes

Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville
1750
Book bound in white silk and decorated with the coat of arms of the Portuguese family and silver and gold beads.

Diario ecclesiastico para os Bispados do Rio de Janeiro, S. Paulo, e Marianna

1808
picture of title page of Mudo lamento

Mudo lamento de la vastissima, y numerosa Gentilidad, que habita las dilatadas margenes del caudaloso Orinoco, su origen, y vertientes, à los piadosos oídos de la Magestad Catholica de las Españas, nuestro señor Don Phelipe Quinto (que Dios guarde).

TAPIA, Matías
1715
Engraved, hand colored illustration. Labels in English read [top] "The Leguana or Iguana Lizard of Guiana, [bottom] "The Alligator or Cayman of Surinam."

Narrative, of a five years' expedition,

John Gabriel Stedman
1796

Related

picture of Colombian Ambassador to the US with Cristina Soriano looking at book

JCB Brings Independence-era Materials to Residence of Colombian Ambassador in Washington, DC

September 11, 2019
Image from: Vue du Détroit de Tinquina. sur le Lac de Titicaca. Plateau des Andes. (Bolivia.) [Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny 1844]. Original at the John Carter Brown Library.
Fellow's Talk

The Puquina Language in the Seventeenth-Century Andes

Black people work at a sugar mill with clouds and a palm tree outside

The Americas on Fire

19th century botanical guide by auguste de saint-hilaire

Plantes Usuelles des Brasiliens (Paris, 1824)

November 1, 2017
illustration of three large ships on water, people on river bank drag nets over the water

Entangled Histories of Empire and Science

October 12, 2017

See Also

History of the Book

Religious Cultures